Prunus subg. Prunus

Key takeaways

Prunus subg. Prunus belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Prunus subg. Prunus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Prunus subg. Prunus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Prunus subg. Prunus is a subgenus of Prunus. This subgenus includes plums, apricots and bush cherries. Some species conventionally included in Prunus subg. Amygdalus are clustered with plum/apricot species according to molecular phylogenetic studies. Shi et al. (2013) has incorporated subg. Amygdalus into subg. Prunus, thereby including almonds and peaches in this subgenus. The species in this subgenus have solitary flowers or 2–3 in a fascicle.

Sections according to Shi et al. (2013) Shi et al. (2013) divide subg. Prunus into seven sections: sect. Amygdalus, sect. Armeniaca, sect. Emplectocladus, sect. Microcerasus, sect. Persicae, sect. Prunocerasus and sect. Prunus. They form three clades. The basal clade is sect. Emplectocladus which is sometimes treated as a subgenus. The other two clades are the Amygdalus-Persicae clade (sometimes treated as subg. Amygdalus) and the Armeniaca-Microcerasus-Prunocerasus-Prunus clade (subg. Prunus in a narrow sense).

Sect. Emplectocladus Prunus sect. Emplectocladus (Torr.) A.Gray is the sister group to all the other species in this subgenus, and sometimes treated as a distinct subgenus, Prunus subg. Emplectocladus (Torr.) S.C.Mason. It includes six New World species.

Prunus fasciculata – desert almond Prunus cercocarpifolia Prunus eremophila – Mojave Desert almond Prunus havardii – Havard's wild almond Prunus microphylla – Mexican wild almond Prunus minutiflora – Texas wild almond

Sect. Amygdalus Prunus sect. Amygdalus (L.) Benth. & Hook.f. and the next section (Persica) sometimes constitute Prunus subg. Amygdalus (L.) Focke which is monophyletic, but the incongruence between nuclear and chloroplast DNA phylogenies blurs the boundary between the two sections somewhat. The word "ămygdălus" is Latin for the almond nut. This section includes most Old World almond species except P. mongolica, P. tangutica, P. triloba, P. pedunculata, P. tenella, P. petunnikowii and probably other related species. Selected species:

Prunus arabica – Arabian wild almond Prunus amygdalus – almond Prunus fenzliana Prunus spinosissima – thorny almond

Sect. Persica Prunus sect. Persica (Mill.) Nakai includes peach species as well as two species previously considered almonds (P. mongolica and P. tangutica).

Prunus davidiana – Chinese peach Prunus ferganensis – Fergana peach Prunus kansuensis – Gansu peach Prunus mira – Tibetan peach Prunus mongolica – Mongolian almond Prunus persica – Persian peach / Common peach Prunus tangutica – Tangut almond

Sect. Armeniaca

Species in this Prunus sect. Armeniaca (Scop.) Koch are apricots, native to Eurasia. Selected species:

Prunus armeniaca – apricot Prunus mandshurica – Manchurian apricot Prunus mume – Mei or Chinese flowering plum Prunus sibirica – Siberian apricot

Sect. Microcerasus

Species in Prunus sect. Microcerasus (Webb & Berthel.) C.K.Schneid. are known as bush cherries or dwarf cherries. Selected species:

Prunus glandulosa Prunus japonica Prunus prostrata Prunus pumila Prunus tianshanica Prunus tomentosa

Sect. Prunocerasus

Prunus sect. Prunocerasus Koehne includes New World plums and peachbush (P. texana). Selected species:

Prunus americana – American plum Prunus angustifolia – sand plum Prunus maritima – beach plum Prunus mexicana – Mexican plum Prunus nigra – Canada plum Prunus texana – peachbush

Sect. Prunus

Prunus sect. Prunus includes Old World plums. Selected species:

Prunus cerasifera – cherry plum Prunus domestica – European plum Prunus salicina – Chinese plum Prunus simonii – apricot plum Prunus spinosa – sloe

Additional sections Species of the following sections were not presented in the results of Shi et al. (2013). Therefore, their relationship with the sections proposed by Shi et al. (2013) is unclear.

Sect. Chamaeamygdalus Prunus sect. Chamaeamygdalus (Spach) Dippel used to be included in the Amygdalus-Persica clade. However, molecular phylogenetic research indicates that it should be excluded from the Amygdalus-Persica clade. The phylogenetic positions of the species in this section are still uncertain.

Prunus tenella – Russian almond Prunus petunnikowii

Sect. Louiseania Prunus sect. Louiseania (Carrière) Yazbek includes two or three Asian species. They are called flowering almond and morphologically close to wild almonds (sect. Amygdalus), but they are more related to bush cherries (sect. Microcerasus) and apricots (sect. Armeniaca). According to nuclear phylogenomic analyses, the type species of sect. Louiseania, P. triloba, is embedded in sect. Microcerasus and closely related to the P. prostrata, the type species of sect. Microcerasus. However, in the phylogenetic tree based on plastid genome, P. triloba together with P. tomentosa (also a member of sect. Microcerasus) and apricots is in a clade that is sister to the core part of sect. Microcerasus. The incongruity is attributable to multiple hybridization events during the speciation of P. triloba, which probably involves species of sect. Amygdalus, sect. Armeniaca, sect. Microcerasus, sect. Prunus, and even subg. Cerasus.

Prunus pedunculata Prunus triloba Prunus ulmifolia

Sect. Penarmeniaca Prunus sect. Penarmeniaca S.C.Mason is the sister group to the New World section Prunocerasus and probably the Old World species P. tenella. It includes two New World species.

Prunus andersonii – desert peach Prunus fremontii – desert apricot

Notes

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Prunus subg. Prunus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Prunus subg. Prunus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Prunus subg. Prunus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Prunus subg. Prunus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Prunus subg. Prunus

In research: Prunus subg. Prunus appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Prunus subg. Prunus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Prunus subg. Prunus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Plant subgenera, Prunus, Prunus subg. Prunus, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Prunus subg. Prunus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Prunus subg. Prunus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Prunus subg. Prunus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Prunus subg. Prunus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Prunus subg. Prunus in simple terms?

Prunus subg. Prunus is a subgenus of Prunus.

Why does Prunus subg. Prunus matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Prunus subg. Prunus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Prunus subg. Prunus.